No probe, SC fines NGO Rs 25 lakh

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 1

The Supreme Court today imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on Citizens for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), which had demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the medical college bribery scandal in which former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi is under scanner.

A Bench of Justices RK Agrawal, Arun Mishra and AM Khanwilkar ordered that the amount will go to the Supreme Court Bar Association. The detailed order is yet to be uploaded.

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This is the second such petition dismissed by the Bench. On November 14, it had rejected advocate Kamini Jaiswal’s PIL seeking a SIT probe under the supervision of a retired Chief Justice of India into the allegations of bribery to procure judicial orders in a medical college admissions case.

It had said the acts of advocates Kamini Jaiswal and Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Dushyant Dave were contemptuous. 

However, it did not initiate contempt proceedings against them. Unlike the NGO, it had chosen not to impose any fine on petitioner Jaiswal.

“No judge can be held responsible for what may or has happened in the corridors, or for ‘who purports to sell whom’. The alleged actions of a retired judge of a High Court, allegedly assuring and promising a ‘favourable’ decision... in  a case which was then pending before this court, begs the question, and we wonder, as to what favourable orders have been passed,” the Bench had said in its November 14 order.

“SC dismisses petition of Campaign for Judicial Accountability seeking court-monitored SIT investigation on a CBI FIR, alleging conspiracy, preparation and planning by medical college to bribe SC judges. SC leaves investigation with CBI and imposes costs of Rs 25 lakh. Intimidating petitioner?” CJAR counsel Prashant Bhushan tweeted.

“For the SC to impose Rs 25 lakh on an organisation campaigning for judicial accountability without notice is not only a gross violation of natural justice, but intended to gag us and people from asking questions about corruption and accountability of judiciary,” he tweeted. “But this attempt to put the lid on uncomfortable questions will not deter CJAR.”